Brew and Q

Tim hosted a brew and barbecue yesterday and it was fantastic.  Just what I needed after a long week of work (that was topped off by 8 more hours on Saturday).  I had an opportunity to meet some of the other Brewsquito's after missing the first official meeting.  It's nice to talk to people about beer on the same level you enjoy it once in a while.  Usually I just watch my friends eyes glaze over when I start.

I had a chance to try Steve and Jason's excellent Oatmeal Stout.  Coffee, roasted barley, a little bit of chocolate.  No hop aroma and just enough bitterness to keep it from tasting like chocolate milk!  They will definitely be entering that in to Siciliano's competition.  I traded Tim a Jet Pack Irish Red for one of his stouts too.  I love that beer!  Using a gift card from my birthday I was able to purchase some Kentucky Breakfast from Founder's and we had one of those as well as some other great beers.

The barbecue was incredible courtesy of Jerry.  Those who didn't stick around missed out on some truly great ribs.  The carnitas and jalapeno poppers were awesome too.  I want to learn a few things from Jerry this summer hopefully and do some slow cooking of my own.  Nothing like good barbecue with good food.

After talking with a few of our fellow club members Kevin and I are very excited to retry a couple of recipes and hit the color marks better.  We've been doing a lot of research this week and think we can better hit our carbonation marks and flavor marks as well.  Some new information about hopping has led us to believe we may be a little light in our previous attempts.  I think we'll brew this week and if so I'll definitely post.  Until next time.

Respect beer.  Drink only the exceptional.

-Mike